The labour-market impact of migration to rural areas

The ʹpopulation-environment nexusʹ debate emphasizes the impact of population and development on forest and agricultural resources and specifically focuses on small farmers in tropical regimes, on their adaptabilities, and on the reasons why they differ in their management of resources. Recent ʹbottom-upʹ perspectives pay close attention to farmersʹ own practices and suggest that population growth can be accompanied by environmental enhancement and recovery as well as destruction. During the last 30 years, the densely forested frontier of the Tarai in Nepal has been the target for government-sponsored resettlement and spontaneous land-occupation of Hill migrants, paharis. The indigenous occupants of the Tarai, tharus, were sometimes displaced, often disadvantaged, and rarely considered allies, either to the new Asettler communities or the central authorities and the elite classes. This paper traces the Aconverging paths of the paharis and tharus in their common struggles for survival and sustenance Aat the frontier. The forested environment is one common resource base, the political allegiances communities embrace is another resource strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative data depicting the comparative situation of paharis and tharus in the Tarai district of Bardiya in Western Nepal are used to uncover contemporary strategies of forest use, indigenous and settler survival strategies, and local ʹgrassrootsʹ political organization. Generalizations are sought Ato better understand the population-environment nexus of relations in such South Asian tropical forest ecosystems.